List of anime by release date (pre-1939)

A clip from the short film Namakura Gatana (1917), the oldest extant film made for cinemas known to exist.

This is a list of anime by release date which covers Japanese animated productions that were made between 1917–1938. Anime in Japan can be traced back to three key figures whom in the early 20th century started experimenting with paper animation. It is unknown when the first animated film was made, but historians have tied the year 1917 as being the key date. Very few of the first animations that were made survive to this day due to the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, at one point it was even thought that all animated works made before the earthquake were lost until the discovery of two films in 2008. Production of animated works resumed again after the earthquake, and by the early/mid 1930s sound, and cel animation were starting to appear. Later in the decade, Japan went to war with China, resulting in paper needed for the war to be used sparingly, as a result, new manga stories disappeared from the public while the Japanese government stepped in to regulate what was being released through the cinemas to take its place. The mid to late 1930s saw more animated works that were propaganda-themed to rally the public's support.

Contents

1917 was the year of definitive firsts in the history of Japanese animation. The three key figures at the time were Ōten Shimokawa, Seitarou Kitayama, and Junichi Kouchi each contributing to making the first short films that would be known as anime. There is much debate over which gets the honor of the first animated film, and even the exact date of that film's premiere. According to contemporary sources of the time, an unknown titled film of Tennenshoku Katsudō Shashin premiered in January. Evidence of this comes from Kinema Record, with the July edition making specific claim to the first release occurring in January, but does not specify the title of the work.[1] Shimokawa's film Imokawa Mukozo the Doorman is conventionally and largely claimed to be the first work, but contemporary sources portray it as the "third" film. Speculation about the error is debated, but the two now lost films and their contents have been reported by various sources allowing for a clearer picture of the early history.

The first confirmed film release occurred in the first ten days of February, with Shimokawa's Dekobō shingachō – Meian no shippai(凸坊新画帳・名案の失敗,Bumpy new picture book – Failure of a great plan).[1] The film was produced with chalk on a blackboard, with redrawing for each frame. Shimokawa would switch to paper for later, but the exact date and work to depict the switch is unknown.[1] Kouchi's first film Hanawa Hekonai Meitō no Maki(塙凹内名刀之巻,Hanawa Hekonai – The famous sword) also known as Namakura Gatana(なまくら刀,Dull Katana) and Tameshigiri(試し斬,The sword test) premiered on June 30. This film is currently the earliest surviving work, and was only rediscovered in March 2008.[2]Katsudō Shashin was widely reported as possibly dating to 1907, but is of unconfirmed origin and is not known to have premiered or been produced for commercial interest.

Of the animated films produced in 1918, at least eight are known, these films include Momotarō, which was the first animated film to be shown outside Japan, and Tarou Urashima which is based on the Japanese legend Urashima Tarō.[3] There are no known animated films that were made from 1919 to 1923 in existence, which could be the result of the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.

The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake which occurred on September 1 dealt incredible damage in Japan, the greatest prior to World War II which resulted in 105,385 confirmed deaths.[15][16][17] Prior to the rediscovery of several Japanese animated films it was presumed that all prints produced up to its date had been destroyed, the account and record of these films themselves has been expanded, with Patten's Watching Anime, Reading Manga: 25 Years of Essays and Reviews 2004 book claiming that three films were produced in 1917 when over a dozen works are now known.[1][18] Despite the findings, the earthquake along with World War II have resulted in only 4% of all Japanese films made before 1945 being known to exist today.[19]

After the earthquake production of new films took place within a year, for the early films, benshi, storytellers were hired who sat next to the screen and narrated the silent movies. They were descendants of kabuki jōruri, kōdan storytellers, theater barkers and other forms of oral storytelling,[20] the first animated "talkie" or sound film titled Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka ("World of Power and Women") was made in 1933, now a lost film it was a breakthrough for Japanese animation.[21] However, at the time more than 80 percent of movies made in the country were still silents.[22] By the mid 1930s the animation style was changing as well, chiyogami or paper animation was being phased out in favor of cel animation. Previously this latter form had been dismissed as too costly to use;[23] in 1934, the first entirely cel animated short entitled The Dance of the Chagamas was made.[11] Cel animated shorts of the mid 1930s borrowed aspects that were being used at the time by Disney. Towards the end of the decade, political events taking place at home as well as abroad were changing animation styles in Japan towards propaganda, and national pride.

Note: The kanji 漫画 means "cartoon", this is found before some of the titles in the sources listed below.

1.
History of anime
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The history of anime can be traced back to the start of the 20th century, with the oldest surviving anime being Namakura Gatana. The first generation of animators in the late 1910s included Ōten Shimokawa, Junichi Kōuchi and Seitaro Kitayama, propaganda films, such as Momotarō no Umiwashi and Momotarō, Umi no Shinpei, the latter being the first anime feature film, were made during World War II. During the 1970s, anime developed further, separating itself from its Western roots, typical shows from this period include Astro Boy, Lupin III and Mazinger Z. During this period several filmmakers became famous, especially Hayao Miyazaki, Space Battleship Yamato and The Super Dimension Fortress Macross also achieved worldwide success after being adapted respectively as Star Blazers and Robotech. The film Akira set records in 1988 for the costs of an anime film. Later, in 2004, the same creators produced Steamboy, which took over as the most expensive anime film, according to Natsuki Matsumoto, the first animated film produced in Japan may have stemmed from as early as 1907. Known as Katsudō Shashin, from its depiction of a boy in a sailor suit drawing the characters for Katsudō Shashin and it consists of fifty frames stenciled directly onto a strip of celluloid. This claim has not been verified though and predates the first showing of animated films in Japan, Film titles have surfaced over the years, but none have been proven to predate this year. The first foreign animation is known to have found in Japan in 1910. Yasushi Watanabe found a film known as 不思議のボールド in the records of the 吉沢商店 company, the description matches James Blackton’s Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, though academic consensus on whether or not this is a true animated film is disputed. According to Kyokko Yoshiyama, the first animated film called ニッパールの変形 was shown in Japan at the 浅草帝国館 in Tokyo sometime in 1911, Yoshiyama did not refer to the film as animation though. The first confirmed animated film shown in Japan was Les Exploits de Feu Follet by Émile Cohl on April 15,1912. While speculation and other films have been found in Japan. During this time, German animations marketed for home release were distributed in Japan, few complete animations made during the beginnings of Japanese animation have survived. The reasons vary, but many are of commercial nature, after the clips had been run, reels were sold to smaller cinemas in the country and then disassembled and sold as strips or single frames. The first anime that was produced in Japan was made sometime in 1917 and it has been confirmed though that Dekobō shingachō – Meian no shippai was made sometime during February,1917. At least two unconfirmed titles were reported to have made the previous month. The first anime films were made by three leading figures in the industry

2.
Anime
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Anime is Japanese hand-drawn or computer animation. The word is the pronunciation of animation in Japanese, where this term references all animation. Arguably, the abstract approach to the words meaning may open up the possibility of anime produced in countries other than Japan. For simplicity, many Westerners strictly view anime as a Japanese animation product, some scholars suggest defining anime as specifically or quintessentially Japanese may be related to a new form of orientalism. The earliest commercial Japanese animation dates to 1917, and Japanese anime production has continued to increase steadily. Anime is distributed theatrically, by way of television broadcasts, directly to home media and it is classified into numerous genres targeting diverse broad and niche audiences. Anime is an art form with distinctive production methods and techniques that have been adapted over time in response to emergent technologies. It consists of an ideal story-telling mechanism, combining art, characterization, cinematography. The production of anime focuses less on the animation of movement and more on the realism of settings as well as the use of effects, including panning, zooming. Being hand-drawn, anime is separated from reality by a gap of fiction that provides an ideal path for escapism that audiences can immerse themselves into with relative ease. Diverse art styles are used and character proportions and features can be quite varied, the anime industry consists of over 430 production studios, including major names like Studio Ghibli, Gainax, and Toei Animation. Despite comprising only a fraction of Japans domestic film market, anime makes up a majority of Japanese DVD sales and it has also seen international success after the rise of English-dubbed programming. This rise in popularity has resulted in non-Japanese productions using the anime art style. Anime is an art form, specifically animation, that all genres found in cinema. In Japanese, the term refers to all forms of animation from around the world. In English, anime is more used to denote a Japanese-style animated film or television entertainment or as a style of animation created in Japan. The etymology of the anime is disputed. The English term animation is written in Japanese katakana as アニメーション and is アニメ in its shortened form, in English, anime—when used as a common noun—normally functions as a mass noun

3.
Cutout animation
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Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or even photographs. The worlds earliest known animated films were cutout animations, as is the worlds earliest surviving animated feature. Today, cutout-style animation is produced using computers, with scanned images or vector graphics taking the place of physically cut materials. South Park is an example of the transition since its pilot episode was made with paper cutouts before switching to computer software. More complex figures depicted in animation, such as in silhouette animation, often have joints made with a rivet or pin or, when they are made on a computer. These connections act as mechanical linkage, which have the effect of a specific, other notable examples include Angela Anaconda and, more recently, Charlie and Lola. One of the most famous animators still using traditional animation today is Yuriy Norshteyn. For more examples, see the list of stop-motion films, el Apóstol by Italian-Argentine cartoonist Quirino Cristiani, was also the worlds first animated feature film. The Adventures of Prince Achmed by Lotte Reiniger was a silhouette animation using armatured cutouts and backgrounds which were painted or composed of blown sand. 12, also known as Heaven and Earth Magic by Harry Everett Smith, completed in 1962, the Soviet films Lefty and Go There, Dont Know Where. René Lalouxs early films made use of armatured cutouts, while his first feature Fantastic Planet is an example of unarmatured cutout animation. The feature films of Karel Zeman combined cutout animation and landscapes with live actors, the opening sequence of LArmata Brancaleone, a film by Italian director Mario Monicelli, features cutout animation, made by the Italian Emanuele Luzzati. South Park, Bigger, Longer & Uncut uses computer animation to imitate cutout animation, strange Frame relies primarily on an innovative cutout style combined with both traditional and 3D elements. Live for the moment, from Verona Riots band is a recently produced music video made with cut out animation by Alberto Serrano. Cirkeline verdens mindste superhelt - Denmark Thieves of Baghdad by Noburo Ofuji was an example of cutout animation. The Miracle of Flight, a short animated clip from the famous Monty Pythons Flying Circus - by Terry Gilliam Le merle, is combination of the cut-outs. The Little Island, a combination of traditional animation and paper cut-out elements - by Richard Williams How Death Came to Earth - by Ishu Patel. Tabi and Shijin no Shôgai, two cutout animations - by Kihachirō Kawamoto, Angela Anaconda, an animation combining the black-and-white photographs and cutout-styled CGI animation

4.
Traditional animation
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Traditional animation is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until the advent of computer animation, Animation productions begin by deciding on a story. The oral or literary source material must then be converted into a film script. The storyboard has a somewhat similar to a comic book, and it shows the sequence of shots as consecutive sketches that also indicate transitions, camera angles. The images allow the team to plan the flow of the plot. The storyboard artists will have meetings with the director and may have to redraw or re-board a sequence many times before it meets final approval. Before true animation begins, a soundtrack or scratch track is recorded. A completed cartoon soundtrack will feature music, sound effects, often, an animatic or story reel is made after the soundtrack is created, but before full animation begins. An animatic typically consists of pictures of the storyboard synchronized with the soundtrack and this allows the animators and directors to work out any script and timing issues that may exist with the current storyboard. The storyboard and soundtrack are amended if necessary, and a new animatic may be created and reviewed with the director until the storyboard is perfected, advertising agencies today employ the use of animatics to test their commercials before they are made into full up spots. Animatics use drawn artwork, with moving pieces, video storyboards are similar to animatics but do not have moving pieces. Photomatics are another option when creating test spots, but instead of using drawn artwork, there is a shoot in which hundreds of digital photographs are taken. The large amount of images to choose from may make the process of creating a test commercial a bit easier, as opposed to creating an animatic, because changes to drawn art take time and money. Photomatics generally cost more than animatics, as they may require a shoot, however, the emergence of affordable stock photography and image editing software permits the inexpensive creation of photomatics using stock elements and photo composites. Once the animatic has been approved, it and the storyboards are sent to the design departments, character designers prepare model sheets for all important characters and props in the film, these are used to help standardize appearance, poses, and gestures. These model sheets will show how a character or object looks from a variety of angles with a variety of poses, sometimes, small statues known as maquettes may be produced, so that an animator can see what a character looks like in three dimensions. While design is going on, the director takes the animatic and analyzes exactly what poses, drawings. An exposure sheet is created, this is a table that breaks down the action, dialogue

5.
The Crab and the Monkey
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The Crab and the Monkey, also known as Monkey-Crab Battle or The Quarrel of the Monkey and the Crab, is a Japanese folktale. In the story, a sly monkey kills a crab, and is killed in revenge by the crabs offspring. Retributive justice is the theme of the story. Rev. David Thomsons translation, The Battle of the Monkey, Andrew Lang included a somewhat bowdlerized version in The Crimson Fairy Book and Yei Theodora Ozaki included it in her Japanese Fairy Tales. While out walking, a crab finds a rice ball, a sly monkey persuades the crab to trade the rice ball for a persimmon seed. The crab is at first upset, but when she plants, the monkey agrees to climb the tree to pick the fruit for the crab, but gorges himself on the fruit rather than sharing it with the crab. When the crab protests, the monkey hurls hard, unripe fruit at her, the shock of being attacked causes the crab to end up giving birth just years before she dies. The crabs offsprings seek revenge on the monkey, with the help of several allies—a chestnut, a cow dung, a bee, and an usu—they go to the monkeys house. The chestnut hides himself on the hearth, the bee in the water pail, the cow dung on the floor. When the monkey returns home, he tries to himself on the hearth. When the monkey tries to himself from the burn at the water bucket. He tries to run out of the house, but the cow dung makes him slip, the name of the story, the list of allies, and the details of the attacks vary in different parts of Japan. For example, in Kansai one of the allies is a quantity of oil, in a version of the story published in a Japanese textbook in 1887, an egg appears in place of the chestnut and a piece of kelp replaces the cow dung. The egg attacks the monkey by exploding and the slips from under his foot. In the version of the published by Andrew Lang, the crab gathers the unripe fruit and is not killed. Modern versions of the story often tone down the violence, the title The Crab and the Monkey or The Story of the Monkey and the Crab similarly reduce the violence apparent in the older Monkey-Crab Battle name. In a completely different version of the story, when the monkey climbs the tree, when the monkey hangs his basket on a thin branch, the branch breaks and the basket of fruit falls. The crab quickly carries the fruit off and crawls down a hole, the monkey decides to defecate on the crab, and sticks his buttocks down the hole

6.
Bunbuku Chagama
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Bunbuku Chagama is a Japanese folktale about a raccoon dog, or tanuki, that uses its shapeshifting powers to reward its rescuer for his kindness. Bunbuku Chagama roughly translates to happiness bubbling over like a tea pot, the story tells of a poor man who finds a tanuki caught in a trap. Feeling sorry for the animal, he sets it free and that night, the tanuki comes to the poor mans house to thank him for his kindness. The tanuki transforms itself into a chagama and tells the man to him for money. The man sells the tanuki-teapot to a monk, who takes it home and, after scrubbing it harshly, unable to stand the heat, the tanuki teapot sprouts legs and, in its half-transformed state, makes a run for it. The tanuki returns to the man with another idea. The man would set up a roadside attraction and charge admission for people to see a teapot walking a tightrope. The plan works, and each gains something good from the man is no longer poor. In a variant of the story, the tanuki-teapot does not run, the shocked monk decides to leave the teapot as an offering to the poor temple where he lives, choosing not to use it for making tea again. The temple eventually becomes famous for its supposed dancing teapot, an animated movie based on the tale was produced in 1928 by Yokohama Cinema Shoukai. There is also a reference to this story in Studio Ghiblis 1994 animated film Pom Poko, a character in the manga To Love-Ru is seen holding the book and commenting that she is taking an interest in Japanese folklore. In the Naruto series, Shukaku the One-Tail, who is modeled after a tanuki, is mentioned to have originally been sealed into a teapot and it is revealed later that his former jinchūriki was an old man named Bunbuku. In Ichiro by Ryan Inzana, the legend of the teapot is woven into the story of an American teenager who is the son of a Japanese immigrant mother. The Accomplished and Lucky Tea-Kettle, translation by Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford in Tales of Old Japan The Magic Kettle adaptation by Andrew Lang in The Crimson Fairy Book

7.
Pseudonym
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A pseudonym or alias is a name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which can differ from their original or true name. Historically, they have taken the form of anagrams, Graecisms. Pseudonyms should not be confused with new names that replace old ones, actors, musicians, and other performers sometimes use stage names, for example, to mask their ethnic backgrounds. A collective name or collective pseudonym is one shared by two or more persons, for example the co-authors of a work, such as Ellery Queen, the term is derived from the Greek ψευδώνυμον, literally false name, from ψεῦδος, lie, falsehood and ὄνομα, name. A pseudonym is distinct from an allonym, which is the name of another person and this may occur when someone is ghostwriting a book or play, or in parody, or when using a front name, such as by screenwriters blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. See also pseudepigraph, for falsely attributed authorship, sometimes people change their name in such a manner that the new name becomes permanent and is used by all who know the person. This is not an alias or pseudonym, but in fact a new name, in many countries, including common law countries, a name change can be ratified by a court and become a persons new legal name. He then changed his name again to Malik El-Shabazz when he converted to Islam, likewise some Jews adopted Hebrew family names upon immigrating to Israel, dropping surnames that had been in their families for generations. The politician David Ben-Gurion, for example, was born David Grün in Poland and he adopted his Hebrew name in 1910, when he published his first article in a Zionist journal in Jerusalem. Criminals may use aliases, fictitious business names, and dummy corporations to hide their identity, a pen name, or nom de plume, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. Some female authors used male pen names, in particular in the 19th century, the Brontë family used pen names for their early work, so as not to reveal their gender and so that local residents would not know that the books related to people of the neighbourhood. The Brontës used their neighbours as inspiration for characters in many of their books, anne Brontë published The Tenant of Wildfell Hall under the name Acton Bell. Charlotte Brontë published Shirley and Jane Eyre under the name Currer Bell, emily Brontë published Wuthering Heights as Ellis Bell. A well-known example of the former is Mary Ann Evans, who wrote as George Eliot, Another example is Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, a 19th-century French writer who used the pen name George Sand. In contrast, some twentieth and twenty first century male romance novelists have used pen names. A few examples of male authors using female pseudonyms include Brindle Chase, Peter ODonnell and Christopher Wood. A pen name may be used if a real name is likely to be confused with the name of another writer or notable individual. Authors who write both fiction and non-fiction, or in different genres, may use different pen names to avoid confusing their readers, in some cases, an author may become better known by his pen name than his real name

8.
Kachi-kachi Yama
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As the story goes, a man caught a troublesome tanuki in his fields, and tied it to a tree to kill and cook it later. When the man left for town, the tanuki cried and begged the mans wife who was making some mochi, the wife freed the animal, only to have it turn on her and kill her. The tanuki then planned a foul trick, using its shapeshifting abilities, the tanuki disguised itself as the wife and cooked a soup, using the dead womans flesh. When the man home, the tanuki served him the soup. After the meal, the tanuki reverted to its appearance and revealed its treachery before running off and leaving the poor man in shock. The couple had good friends with a rabbit that lived nearby. The rabbit approached the man and told him that it would avenge his wifes death, pretending to befriend the tanuki, the rabbit instead tortured it through various means, from dropping a bees nest on it to treating the stings with a peppery poultice that burned. The title of the story comes from the especially painful trick that the rabbit played. While the tanuki was carrying a load of kindling on his back to make a campfire for the night. Soon, the sound reached its ears and it asked the rabbit what the sound was. It is Kachi-Kachi Yama the rabbit replied and we are not far from it, so it is no surprise that you can hear it. Eventually, the reached the tanukis back, burning it badly. The tanuki challenged the rabbit to a life or death contest to prove who was the better creature and they were each to build a boat and race across a lake in them. The rabbit carved its boat out of a tree trunk. The two competitors were matched at first, but the tanukis mud boat began dissolving in the middle of the lake. As the tanuki was failing in its struggle to stay afloat, the rabbit proclaimed its friendship with the couple. There are other versions that alter some details of the story, such as the severity of what the tanuki did to the woman, Mt. Kachi Kachi and its Tenjō-Yama Park Mt. Kachi Kachi Ropeway refer to this story and have statues depicting portions of the story. Shikoku Tanuki Train Line railway station in Japan uses the slogan Our trains arent made of mud, a direct reference to the Kachi-Kachi Yama tale

9.
Shita-kiri Suzume
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Shita-kiri Suzume, translated literally into Tongue-Cut Sparrow, is a traditional Japanese fable telling of a kind old man, his avaricious wife and an injured sparrow. The story explores the effects of greed, friendship and jealousy on the characters, andrew Lang included it as The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue in The Pink Fairy Book. The basic form of the tale is common throughout the world, once upon a time there lived a poor old woodcutter with his wife, who earned their living by cutting wood and fishing. The old man was honest and kind but his wife was arrogant, one morning, the old man went into the mountains to cut timber and saw an injured sparrow crying out for help. Feeling sorry for the bird, the man takes it back to his home and his wife, being very greedy and rude, is annoyed that he would waste precious food on such a small little thing as a sparrow. The old man, however, continued caring for the bird, the man had to return to the mountains one day and left the bird in the care of the old woman, who had no intention of feeding it. After her husband left, she went out fishing, while she was gone, the sparrow got into some starch that was left out and eventually ate all of it. The old woman was so angry upon her return that she cut out the birds tongue, the old man went searching for the bird and, with the help of other sparrows, found his way into a bamboo grove in which the sparrows inn was located. A multitude of sparrows greeted him and led him to his friend, the others brought him food and sang and danced for him. Upon his departure, they presented him with a choice of a basket or a small basket as a present. Being an older man, he chose the small basket as he thought it would be the least heavy, when he arrived home, he opened the basket and discovered a large amount of treasure inside. The wife, learning of the existence of a larger basket and she chose the larger basket but was warned not to open it before getting home. Such was her greed that the wife could not resist opening the basket before she returned to the house, to her surprise, the box was full of deadly snakes and other monsters. They startled her so much that she tumbled all the way down the mountain, the purity of friendship overcomes the evil of greed and jealousy. Greed only leads to ones own demise, the tale is classified as Aarne–Thompson type 480, The Kind and the Unkind Girls. Others of this type include Diamonds and Toads, Mother Hulda, The Three Heads of the Well, Father Frost, The Three Little Men in the Wood, The Enchanted Wreath, The Old Witch, literary variants include The Three Fairies and Aurore and Aimée. In the Clover Studio video game Ōkami, the sparrows inn exists as an important location and this is a fairly obvious reference to the tale, although the old man is not friendly like he was in the old tale, instead, he is as mean-spirited as his wife. The story has been translated into English many times, by A. B, mitford, William Elliot Griffis, David Thomson, Yei Theodora Ozaki, Teresa Peirce Williston, and many others

10.
Hanasaka Jiisan
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Hanasaka Jiisan, also called Hanasaka Jiijii, is a Japanese folk tale. Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford collected it in Tales of Old Japan, as The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Blossom, rev. David Thomson translated it as The Old Man Who Made the Dead Trees Blossom for Hasegawa Takejirōs Japanese Fairy Tale Series. Andrew Lang included it, as The Envious Neighbor, in The Violet Fairy Book, an old childless couple loved their dog. One day, it dug in the garden, and they found a box of gold pieces there, a neighbor thought the dog must be able to find treasure, and managed to borrow the dog. When it dug in his garden, there were only bones and he told the couple that the dog had just dropped dead. They grieved and buried it under the fig tree where they had found the treasure, one night, the dogs master dreamed that the dog told him to chop down the tree and make a mortar from it. He told his wife, who said they must do as the dog asked, when they did, the rice put into the mortar turned into gold. The neighbor borrowed it, but the rice turned to foul-smelling berries and that night, in a dream, the dog told his master to take the ashes and sprinkle them on certain cherry trees. When he did, the trees came into bloom. English Wikisource has original text related to this article, The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Flower

11.
Nihonbashi
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The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The current bridge designed by Tsumaki Yorinaka was constructed of stone on a steel frame dates from 1911, the district covers a large area to the north and east of the bridge, reaching Akihabara to the north and the Sumida River to the east. Ōtemachi is to the west and Yaesu and Ginza to the south, the Edo-era fish market formerly in Nihonbashi was the predecessor of todays Tsukiji fish market. In later years, Nihonbashi emerged as Tokyos predominant financial district, the Nihonbashi bridge first became famous during the 17th century, when it was the eastern terminus of the Nakasendō and the Tōkaidō, roads which ran between Edo and Kyoto. During this time, it was known as Edobashi, or Edo Bridge, in the Meiji era, the wooden bridge was replaced by a larger stone bridge, which still stands today. It is the point from all distances are measured to the capital. The area surrounding the bridge was burned to the ground during the massive March 9-10,1945 bombing of Tokyo, despite careful maintenance and restoration, one area of the bridge still has scars burned into the stone from an incendiary bomb. It is one of the few traces left from the bombing that leveled most of Tokyo. Shortly before the 1964 Summer Olympics, an expressway was built over the Nihonbashi bridge, in recent years, local citizens have petitioned the government to move this expressway underground. This plan was supported by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi but opposed by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, if implemented, the construction costs are expected to total ¥500 billion. At one time Creatures Inc. had its headquarters in the Kawasakiteitoku Building in Nihonbashi, Tōkaidō Nihonbashi - Shinagawa-juku Nakasendō Nihonbashi - Itabashi-juku Kōshū Kaidō Nihonbashi - Naitō Shinjuku Ōshū Kaidō Nihonbashi - Hakutaku-juku Nikkō Kaidō Nihonbashi - Senju-juku

12.
Kanda, Tokyo
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Kanda is a district in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Kanda was a prior to 1947, when the 35 wards of Tokyo were reorganized into 23. It is home to the Kanda Myojin shrine, devoted to Taira no Masakado, in the Edo period, the shrines festival was one of the three most famous in the city. Kanda is also the home of the Tokyo Resurrection Cathedral which was built by Nicholas of Japan and is the main Cathedral of the Japanese Orthodox Church, a popular Japanese television series, Zenigata Heiji, features a fictitious police patrolman whose beat is Kanda. Near the end of show, Heiji fells the dastardly villain by throwing a coin at him

13.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan

14.
Kabuki
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Kabuki is a classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers, the individual kanji, from left to right, mean sing, dance, and skill. Kabuki is therefore sometimes translated as the art of singing and dancing and these are, however, ateji characters which do not reflect actual etymology. The kanji of skill generally refers to a performer in kabuki theatre, since the word kabuki is believed to derive from the verb kabuku, meaning to lean or to be out of the ordinary, kabuki can be interpreted as avant-garde or bizarre theatre. The expression kabukimono referred originally to those who were dressed and swaggered on a street. The history of kabuki began in 1603 when Izumo no Okuni, possibly a miko of Izumo-taisha and it originated in the 17th century. Japan was under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate, enforced by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the name of the Edo period derives from the relocation of the Tokugawa regime from its former home in Kyoto to the city of Edo, present-day Tokyo. Female performers played both men and women in comic playlets about ordinary life, the style was immediately popular, and Okuni was asked to perform before the Imperial Court. In the wake of success, rival troupes quickly formed. For this reason, kabuki was also called 遊女歌舞妓 during this period, Kabuki became a common form of entertainment in the ukiyo, or Yoshiwara, the registered red-light district in Edo. A diverse crowd gathered under one roof, something that happened nowhere else in the city, Kabuki theaters were a place to see and be seen as they featured the latest fashion trends and current events. The stage provided good entertainment with exciting new music, patterns, clothing, performances went from morning until sunset. The teahouses surrounding or connected to the theater provided meals, refreshments, the area around the theatres was lush with shops selling kabuki souvenirs. Kabuki, in a sense, initiated pop culture in Japan, the shogunate was never partial to kabuki and all the mischief it brought, particularly the variety of the social classes which mixed at kabuki performances. Women’s kabuki, called onna-kabuki, was banned in 1629 for being too erotic, following onna-kabuki, young boys performed in wakashū-kabuki, but since they too were eligible for prostitution, the shogun government soon banned wakashū-kabuki as well. Kabuki switched to male actors, called yaro-kabuki, in the mid-1600s. Male actors played both female and male characters, the theatre remained popular, and remained a focus of urban lifestyle until modern times. The modern all-male kabuki, known as yarō-kabuki, was established during these decades, after women were banned from performing, cross-dressed male actors, known as onnagata or oyama, took over

15.
Sound film
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A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923. The primary steps in the commercialization of sound cinema were taken in the mid- to late 1920s, at first, the sound films which included synchronized dialogue, known as talking pictures, or talkies, were exclusively shorts. The earliest feature-length movies with recorded sound included only music and effects, the first feature film originally presented as a talkie was The Jazz Singer, released in October 1927. A major hit, it was made with Vitaphone, which was at the time the brand of sound-on-disc technology. Sound-on-film, however, would become the standard for talking pictures. By the early 1930s, the talkies were a global phenomenon, in the United States, they helped secure Hollywoods position as one of the worlds most powerful cultural/commercial centers of influence. In Europe, the new development was treated with suspicion by many filmmakers and critics, in Japan, where the popular film tradition integrated silent movie and live vocal performance, talking pictures were slow to take root. In India, sound was the element that led to the rapid expansion of the nations film industry. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as the concept of cinema itself. On February 27,1888, a couple of days after photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge gave a lecture not far from the laboratory of Thomas Edison, the two inventors privately met. No agreement was reached, but within a year Edison commissioned the development of the Kinetoscope, essentially a peep-show system, as a visual complement to his cylinder phonograph. The two devices were brought together as the Kinetophone in 1895, but individual, cabinet viewing of motion pictures was soon to be outmoded by successes in film projection and these appear to be the first publicly exhibited films with projection of both image and recorded sound. Phonorama and yet another sound-film system—Théâtroscope—were also presented at the Exposition, three major problems persisted, leading to motion pictures and sound recording largely taking separate paths for a generation. The primary issue was synchronization, pictures and sound were recorded and played back by separate devices, sufficient playback volume was also hard to achieve. Finally, there was the challenge of recording fidelity, cinematic innovators attempted to cope with the fundamental synchronization problem in a variety of ways. In 1902, Léon Gaumont demonstrated his sound-on-disc Chronophone, involving an electrical connection he had recently patented, four years later, Gaumont introduced the Elgéphone, a compressed-air amplification system based on the Auxetophone, developed by British inventors Horace Short and Charles Parsons

16.
Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka
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Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka is a 1933 anime short film by Kenzō Masaoka and the first Japanese anime of any type to feature voiceovers. The film was released in black and white, there are no known prints of this film available, and it is considered a lost film. Chikara was listed as one of the Best of Best by the 12th Japan Media Arts Festival, the protagonist is a father of four children. His wife is 180 centimetres tall, and weighs 120 kilograms due to her incredibly large physique. Because he is constantly being henpecked at home, he involved in an affair with a cute typist at his company. After obtaining additional evidence of the affair, she goes to confront both her husband and the typist at her husbands office. In 1927, the The Jazz Singer was released in the United States as the first talkie film, Shochiku released Madame and the Courtesan in 1931, the first Japanese talkie. Due to the success of film, the president of Shochiku, Shirō Kido, commissioned Masaoka to make the first anime talkie. Masaoka worked on the film for a little over a year, the film was released in theaters the following year on 13 April 1933. At this time, the job of voice actor did not exist, casting well-known stars, such as Roppa Furukawa and Ranko Sawa, helped make the film a success

17.
Silent film
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A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. The silent film era lasted from 1895 to 1936, in silent films for entertainment, the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, mime and title cards which contain a written indication of the plot or key dialogue. During silent films, a pianist, theatre organist, or, in large cities, pianists and organists would either play from sheet music or improvise, an orchestra would play from sheet music. The term silent film is therefore a retronym—that is, a term created to distinguish something retroactively, the early films with sound, starting with The Jazz Singer in 1927, were referred to as talkies, sound films, or talking pictures. A September 2013 report by the United States Library of Congress announced that a total of 70% of American silent feature films are believed to be completely lost, the earliest precursors of film began with image projection through the use of a device known as the magic lantern. This utilized a glass lens, a shutter and a persistent light source, such as a powerful lantern and these slides were originally hand-painted, but still photographs were used later on after the technological advent of photography in the nineteenth century. The invention of a practical photography apparatus preceded cinema by only fifty years, the next significant step towards film creation was the development of an understanding of image movement. Simulations of movement date as far back as to 1828 and only four years after Paul Roget discovered the phenomenon he called Persistence of Vision. This experience was further demonstrated through Rogets introduction of the thaumatrope, the first projected primary proto-movie was made by Eadweard Muybridge between 1877 and 1880. Muybridge set up a row of cameras along a racetrack and timed image exposures to capture the many stages of a horses gallop, the oldest surviving film was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888. It was a film of people walking in Oakwood streets garden. Edison also made a business of selling Kinetograph and Kinetoscope equipment, due to Edisons lack of securing an international patent on his film inventions, similar devices were invented around the world. The Lumière brothers, for example, created the Cinématographe in France, the Cinématographe proved to be a more portable and practical device than both of Edisons as it combined a camera, film processor and projector in one unit. In contrast to Edisons peepshow-style kinetoscope, which one person could watch through a viewer. Their first film, Sortie de lusine Lumière de Lyon, shot in 1894, is considered the first true motion picture, the invention of celluloid film, which was strong and flexible, greatly facilitated the making of motion pictures. This film was 35 mm wide and pulled using four sprocket holes and this doomed the cinematograph, which could only use film with just one sprocket hole. From the very beginnings of film production, the art of motion pictures grew into maturity in the silent era. Silent filmmakers pioneered the art form to the extent that virtually every style, the silent era was also pioneering era from a technical point of view

18.
Kirigami
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Kirigami is a variation of origami that includes cutting of the paper, rather than solely folding the paper as is the case with origami. Typically, kirigami starts with a base, which is then unfolded. Kirigami are usually symmetrical, such as snowflakes, pentagrams, or orchid blossoms, a difference between kirigami and the art of full base is that kirigami is made out of a single piece of paper that has been cut into a origami. Origami can be made of several pieces glued together, mon-Kirui is the Japanese art of paper cutting. Paper cutting History of origami Seiji Fujishiro, renowned Kirie Artist known for his colourful Paper Cuts which have also published as a book. Nahoko Kojima, professional contemporary Japanese Paper Cut Artist, pioneered sculptural Paper Cuts hanging in 3d. A forum about it The site of Kirigami Kirigami model of Durban stadium Kirigami of Italian monuments gallery from Italy

19.
The Walt Disney Company
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The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It is the second largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue. Disney was founded on October 16,1923 – by brothers Walt Disney, the company also operated under the names The Walt Disney Studio and then Walt Disney Productions. Taking on its current name in 1986, it expanded its operations and also started divisions focused upon theater, radio, music, publishing. In addition, Disney has since created corporate divisions in order to more mature content than is typically associated with its flagship family-oriented brands. The company is best known for the products of its studio, Walt Disney Studios. Disneys other three divisions are Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney Media Networks, and Disney Consumer Products. The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since May 6,1991, Mickey Mouse, an early and well-known cartoon creation of the company, is a primary symbol and mascot for Disney. In early 1923, Kansas City, Missouri, animator Walt Disney created a film entitled Alices Wonderland. After the bankruptcy in 1923 of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Studios, Disney moved to Hollywood to join his brother, Walt and Roy Disney formed Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio that same year. More animated films followed after Alice, in January 1926, with the completion of the Disney studio on Hyperion Street, the Disney Brothers Studios name was changed to the Walt Disney Studio. The distributor owned Oswald, so Disney only made a few hundred dollars, Disney completed 26 Oswald shorts before losing the contract in February 1928, due to a legal loophole, when Winklers husband Charles Mintz took over their distribution company. After failing to take over the Disney Studio, Mintz hired away four of Disneys primary animators to start his own animation studio, Snappy Comedies. In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse and starred in several Disney produced films, ub Iwerks refined Disneys initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disneys first sound film Steamboat Willie, a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18,1928 through Pat Powers distribution company and it was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind Plane Crazy and The Gallopin Gaucho. Disney used Pat Powers Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee De Forests Phonofilm system, Steamboat Willie premiered at B. S. Mosss Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre. Disneys Plane Crazy and The Galloping Gaucho were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks, Disney continued to produce cartoons with Mickey Mouse and other characters, and began the Silly Symphonies series with Columbia Pictures signing on as Symphonies distributor in August 1929

20.
The Tortoise and the Hare
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The Tortoise and the Hare is one of Aesops Fables and is numbered 226 in the Perry Index. The account of a race between unequal partners has attracted conflicting interpretations and it is itself a variant of a common folktale theme in which ingenuity and trickery are employed to overcome a stronger opponent. The story concerns a Hare who ridicules a slow-moving Tortoise, tired of the Hares boastful behaviour, the Tortoise challenges him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, when the Hare awakes however, he finds that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has arrived before him. The later version of the story in La Fontaines Fables, while more long-winded, as in several other fables by Aesop, the lesson it is teaching appears ambiguous. In Classical times it was not the Tortoise’s plucky conduct in taking on a bully that was emphasised, an old Greek source comments that many people have good natural abilities which are ruined by idleness, on the other hand, sobriety, zeal and perseverance can prevail over indolence. When the fable entered the European emblem tradition, the precept to ‘hasten slowly’ was recommended to lovers by Otto van Veen in his Emblemata Amorum, using a relation of the story. There the infant figure of Eros is shown passing through a landscape and pointing to the tortoise as it overtakes the sleeping hare under the motto “perseverance winneth. ”Later interpreters too have asserted that the moral is the proverbial the more haste. In the 19th century and after the fable was given satirical interpretations, in the social commentary of Charles H. Bennetts The Fables of Aesop translated into Human Nature, the hare is changed to a thoughtful craftsman prostrate under the foot of a capitalist entrepreneur. Lord Dunsany brings out another view in his The True History of the Tortoise, there the hare realises the stupidity of the challenge and refuses to proceed any further. The obstinate tortoise continues to the line and is proclaimed the swiftest by his backers. But, continues Dunsany, the reason that this version of the race is not widely known is that few of those that witnessed it survived the great forest-fire that happened shortly after. It came up over the weald by night with a great wind, in Classical times the story was annexed to a philosophical problem by Zeno of Elea in one of many demonstrations that movement is impossible to define satisfactorily. The second of Zenos paradoxes is that of Achilles and the Tortoise, hence Achilles can never catch the Tortoise, no matter how fast he runs, since the Tortoise will always be moving ahead. The only satisfactory refutation has been mathematical and since then the name of the fable has been applied to the function described in Zenos paradox, in mathematics and computer science, the tortoise and the hare algorithm is an alternative name for Floyds cycle-finding algorithm. There is a Greek version of the fable but no early Latin version, for this reason it did not begin to appear in printed editions of Aesops fables until the 16th century, one of the earliest being Bernard Salomons Les Fables dEsope Phrygien, mises en Ryme Francoise. Versions followed from the Netherlands and Flanders but none in English before Francis Barlows edition of 1667, among the many illustrations of the fable, that by the French caricaturist Jean Grandville is novel in portraying the tortoise as running upright. This is also how he is shown in the Walt Disney cartoon version of The Tortoise, another departure from the ordinary in Grandvilles etching is the choice of a mole rather than, as usual, a fox as the judge at the finishing line

21.
Kimigayo
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Kimigayo is the national anthem of Japan. Its lyrics are the oldest among the national anthems. Its lyrics are from a poem written in the Heian period. While the title Kimigayo is usually translated as His Imperial Majestys Reign, from 1888 to 1945 Kimigayo served as the national anthem of the Empire of Japan. When the Empire was dissolved following its surrender at the end of World War II and this successor state was a parliamentary democracy and the polity therefore changed from a system based on imperial sovereignty to one based on popular sovereignty. Emperor Shōwa was not dethroned, and Kimigayo was retained as the de facto national anthem, the passage of the Act on National Flag and Anthem in 1999 recognized it as the official national anthem. For example, the protagonist Hikaru Genji of the Tale of Genji is also called Hikaru no Kimi or Hikaru-gimi, but before Nara period, the emperor was often called ōkimi, so it is controversial whether the word kimi in kimigayo had meant emperor or not originally. In Kamakura period, Kimigayo was used as a festive song among samurai, in latter Edo period, Kimigayo was used in the Ōoku and Satsuma-han as a common festive new year song. In those contexts, kimi never meant the emperor but only the Tokugawa shogun, after the Meiji Restoration, samurai from Satsuma-han controlled the Imperial Japanese government and they adopted Kimigayo as the national anthem of Japan. From this time until the Japanese defeat in World War II, Kimigayo was understood to mean the long reign of the emperor. With the adoption of the Constitution of Japan in 1947, the emperor no longer a sovereign who ruled by divine right. The Ministry of Education did not give any new meanings for Kimigayo after the war, the Ministry also did not formally renounce the pre-war meaning of Kimigayo. In 1999, during the deliberations of the Act on National Flag and Anthem, and, the phrase Kimigayo indicates our State, Japan, which has the Emperor enthroned as the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people by the consensus-based will of Japanese citizens. And it is reasonable to take the lyric of Kimigayo to mean the wish for the lasting prosperity and peace of such country of ours. Parties opposed to the Liberal Democratic Party, which was in control of the government at the time Obuchi was prime minister, strongly objected to the meaning of kimi. From the Democratic Party of Japan, members objected due to the lack of any ties to the meaning. Shii also objected to the use of the song as the anthem because for a democratic nation. The lyrics first appeared in the Kokin Wakashū, a poetry anthology, the poem was included in many anthologies, and was used in a later period as a celebration song of a long life by people of all social statures

22.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
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Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the older still The Story of the Three Bears are two variations of an old fairy tale. The original tale tells of an ugly, old woman who enters the forest home of three bachelor bears whilst they are away and she sits in their chairs, eats some of their porridge, and falls asleep in one of their beds. When the bears return and discover her, she starts up, jumps from the window, the other major version brings Goldilocks to the tale, and an even later version retained Goldilocks, but has the three bachelor bears transformed into Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear. What was originally an oral tale became a cosy family story with only a hint of menace. The story has elicited various interpretations and has adapted to film, opera. The Story of the Three Bears is one of the most popular tales in the English language. In Southeys tale, three anthropomorphic bears – a Little, Small, Wee Bear, a Middle-sized Bear, Southey describes them as very good-natured, trusting, harmless, tidy, and hospitable. Each of these bachelor bears has his own bowl, chair. One day they make porridge for breakfast, but its too hot to eat, an old woman named silver hair approaches the bears house. As she has sent out by her family, she is a disgrace to them. She is impudent, bad, foul-mouthed, ugly, dirty, and she looks through a window, peeps through the keyhole, and lifts the latch. Assured that no one is home, she walks in, the silver haired old lady eats the Wee Bears porridge, then settles into his chair and breaks it. Prowling about, she finds the bears beds and falls asleep in Wee Bears bed, the dark end of the tale is reached when the bears return. Wee Bear finds his empty bowl, his chair, and silver hair in his bed and cries, Somebody has been lying in my bed. Silver hair starts, runs away, breaks her neck and goes to the hospital, the same year Southeys tale was published, the story was versified by George Nicol who acknowledged the anonymous author of The Doctor as the great, original concocter of the tale. Southey was delighted with Nicols effort to bring exposure to the tale. Nicols version was illustrated with engravings by B, hart, and was reissued in 1848 with Southey identified as the storys author. The story of the three bears was in circulation before the publication of Southeys tale

23.
The Ugly Duckling
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The Ugly Duckling is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story tells of a little bird born in a barnyard who suffers abuse from the others around him until, much to his delight, he matures into a beautiful swan. The story is beloved around the world as a tale about personal transformation for the better, “The Ugly Duckling” was first published 11 November 1843, with three other tales by Andersen in Copenhagen, Denmark to great critical acclaim. The tale has been adapted to various media including opera, musical, the tale is completely Andersens invention and owes no debt to fairy tales or folklore. When the tale begins, a mother ducks eggs hatch, one of the little birds is perceived by the other birds and animals on the farm as a homely little creature and suffers much verbal and physical abuse from them. He wanders sadly from the barnyard and lives with wild ducks and he finds a home with an old woman, but her cat and hen tease and taunt him mercilessly and once again he sets off alone. The duckling sees a flock of migrating wild swans and he is delighted and excited, but he cannot join them, for he is too young and cannot fly. A farmer finds and carries the freezing little duckling home, but the foundling is frightened by the noisy children. He spends a miserable winter alone in the outdoors, mostly hiding in a cave on the lake that freezes over. When spring arrives a flock of swans descends on the now thawing lake and he is shocked when the swans welcome and accept him, only to realize by looking at his reflection in the water that he has grown into one of them. The flock takes to the air, and the now beautiful swan spreads his gorgeous large wings, Andersen first conceived the story in 1842 while enjoying the beauty of nature during his stay at the country estate of Bregentved, and lavished a years worth of attention upon it. He initially considered The Young Swans as the title but, not wanting to spoil the element of surprise in the protagonist’s transformation. “The Ugly Duckling” was first published in Copenhagen, Denmark 11 November 1843 in New Fairy Tales, the first edition of 850 was sold out by December 18, and Reitzel planned another 850. The tale was fourth and last in the volume included, The Angel, The Nightingale, and The Sweethearts, or, The Top. The volume sold out almost immediately and Andersen wrote on December 18,1843, all the papers are praising it, everyone is reading it. No books of mine are appreciated in the way these fairy tales are. ”Andersen promoted the tale by reading it aloud at social gatherings, the tale was republished 18 December 1849 in Fairy Tales. 1850. and again 15 December 1862 in Fairy Tales and Stories, the tale has since been translated into various languages and published around the world and has become the most famous story by Andersen. The ugly duckling is the child of a swan whose egg accidentally rolled into a ducks nest, bruno Bettelheim observes in The Uses of Enchantment that the Ugly Duckling is not confronted with the tasks, tests, or trials of the typical fairy tale hero

24.
Norakuro
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Norakuro is a Japanese manga series created by Suihō Tagawa and published by Kodansha in Shōnen Kurabu. The titular protagonist, Norakuro, or Norakuro-kun, is an anthropomorphic black, the name Norakuro is an abbreviation of norainu and Kurokichi. Norakuro strongly influenced Machiko Hasegawa, the author of Sazae-san, who apprenticed with its author Suihō Tagawa, there is an excerpt that appears in the sixth Kramers Ergot comics anthology which is the only example of Tagawas work published in English. In the original story, the central character Norakuro was a serving in an army of dogs called the fierce dogs regiment. Serialization of Norakuro stopped in 1941 for wartime austerity reason, after the war, due to the popularity of the strip, the character returned in various guises, including a sumo wrestler and a botanist. Pre-war animated films based on the military Norakuro, and two animated series of Norakuro, in 1970 and 1987, have also been produced. In the 1970 series, the voice of Norakuro was played by Nobuyo Ōyama, during the 1980s and early 1990s Norakuro was the mascot of the Physical Training School of the Japan Self Defense Force. Norakuro-kun at Studio Pierrot Norakuro-kun at Studio Pierrot Norakuro Kun at the Big Cartoon DataBase Norakuro at Anime News Networks encyclopedia Norakuro-kun at Anime News Networks encyclopedia

25.
Hare of Inaba
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The Hare of Inaba can refer to two distinct Japanese myths, both from the ancient province of Inaba, now the eastern part of Tottori Prefecture. The Hare of Inaba legend belongs to the Izumo denrai, or tradition of myths originating from the Izumo region, the Hare of Inaba forms an essential part of the legend of the Shinto god Ōnamuchi-no-kami, which was the name for Ōkuninushi within this legend. The hare referred to in the legend is the Lepus brachyurus, or Japanese hare, the Japanese hare ranges between 43 centimetres and 54 centimetres in length, and is much smaller than the common European hare. Japanese hares are typically brown, but may turn white during winter in areas with a varying climate, one version of the tale of the Hare of Inaba is found in the Kojiki, the oldest extant chronicle in Japan, which dates from early in the 8th century. The legend appears in the first of the three sections of the Kojiki, the Kamitsumaki, also known as the Jindai no Maki, or Volume of the Age of the Gods. This section of the Kojiki outlines the myths concerning the foundation of Japan prior to the birth of the Emperor Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan. In the Kojiki version of the myth, a hare tricks some wanizame into being used as a bridge in order to travel from the Island of Oki to Cape Keta. Cape Keta is now identified with the Hakuto Coast in the city of Tottori. The hare challenges the sharks to see whose clan is larger—that of the sharks, the hare had the sharks lie in a row across the sea. The hare then hopped across them, counting them as he went, nearing the end, the hare exclaims that he has deceived the sharks in order to use them as a bridge. The last shark attacks the hare, ripping his fur from him, Ōnamuchi-no-kami and his eighty brothers were traveling through the Inaba region to woo Princess Yakami of Inaba. While the brothers were on their way to visit the princess, rather than helping the hare, they advised it to wash in the sea and dry itself in the wind, which naturally caused it great pain. In contrast Ōnamuchi, unlike his elder brothers, told the hare to bathe in fresh water from the mouth of a river. The body of the hare was restored to its original state, in gratitude, the hare told Ōnamuchi, the lowest born in the family, that he would marry Princess Yakami. The Hare of Inaba legend emphasizes the benevolence of Ōnamuchi, who was enshrined at the Izumo-taisha. The version of the Hare of Inaba legend told in the Kojiki has been compared to similar myths from Java in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the white hare bit Amaterasus clothes and took her to an appropriate place for a temporary palace along Nakayama mountain and Reiseki mountain. About two hours walk, accompanied by the hare, Amaterasu reached a mountain top plain. Then, the white hare disappeared at Ise ga naru, the place of this legend is in Yazu town and Tottori city, in Tottori Prefecture, where the shrine Hakuto Jinja reveres the white hare

26.
1940 Summer Olympics
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The 1940 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XII Olympiad, were originally scheduled to be held from 21 September to 6 October 1940, in Tokyo, Japan. They were rescheduled for Helsinki, Finland, to be held from July 20 to August 4,1940, the campaign to choose a city for 1940 began in 1932, with Barcelona, Rome, Helsinki, and Tokyo participating. Tokyo city officials suggested a campaign as a means of international diplomacy following Japans alienation from the League of Nations due to the Mukden Incident, in 1936, Tokyo was chosen in a surprise move, making it the first non-Western city to win an Olympic bid. During the 1930 Far Eastern Games in Tokyo, Indian participants were spotted flying the flag of their independence movement rather than the flag of British India and this caused a complaint from the British Olympic Association. In 1934 Japan attempted to invite European colonies to the Far Eastern Games, the main stadium was to be Meiji Jingu Stadium, later used at the 1964 Summer Olympics. The Olympic Village was to be built on the present sites of Kinuta Park or Todoroki Gorge, a schedule was drawn up, and guidelines were printed in four languages. Monthly magazines and posters were printed and distributed internationally, construction began on some buildings, and arrangements were made with hotels, travel agents, and airlines for easy access. When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out on July 7,1937, Kono Ichiro, the 1938 Far Eastern Games were also cancelled, but Japans IOC delegates persisted under a belief that the war would soon be over. In March 1938, the Japanese provided reassurances to the IOC at the organizations Cairo conference that Tokyo would still be able to serve as the host city. In July, a session was held to decide the matters of the Summer and Winter Olympics. The Worlds Fair was only postponed, under a belief that Japan would be able to wrap up the war, kōichi Kido, who would later be instrumental in the surrender of Japan in 1945, announced the forfeiture on July 16,1938. He closed his speech saying, When peace reigns again in the Far East, we can then invite the Games to Tokyo and this would come to pass in 1964. Despite the cancellation of the 1940 Olympics, the Tokyo organizing committee released its budget for the Games, in a departure from standard practice, the budget included all capital outlays as well as direct organizing costs. The total budget was ¥20.1 million, one-third of which would have been paid by the Tokyo metropolitan government, the IOC then awarded the Games to Helsinki, Finland, the city that had been the runner-up in the original bidding process. The Games were then scheduled to be staged from July 20 to August 4,1940, the Olympic Games were suspended indefinitely following the outbreak of World War II and did not resume until the London Games of 1948. Gliding was due to be an Olympic sport in the 1940 Games after a demonstration at the Berlin Games in 1936. The sport has not been featured in any Games since, though the glider designed for it, meanwhile, Japan hosted the 1940 East Asian Games in Tokyo, with six participating nations. Helsinki eventually held the 1952 Summer Olympics, while Tokyo held the 1964 Summer Olympics, during August 1940, prisoners of war celebrated a special Olympics called International Prisoner-of-War Olympic Games

27.
Cinema of Japan
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The cinema of Japan has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world, as of 2010, in 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that earned 54. 9% of a box office total of US$2.338 billion. Movies have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived, in a Sight & Sound list of the best films produced in Asia, Japanese works made up eight of the top 12, with Tokyo Story ranked number one. Japan has won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film four times, the kinetoscope, first shown commercially by Thomas Edison in the United States in 1894, was first shown in Japan in November 1896. The Vitascope and the Lumière Brothers Cinematograph were first presented in Japan in early 1897, Lumière cameramen were the first to shoot films in Japan. Moving pictures, however, were not a new experience for the Japanese because of their rich tradition of pre-cinematic devices such as gentō or the magic lantern. The first successful Japanese film in late 1897 showed sights in Tokyo, in 1898 some ghost films were made, the Shirō Asano shorts Bake Jizo and Shinin no sosei. The first documentary, the short Geisha no teodori, was made in June 1899, tsunekichi Shibata made a number of early films, including Momijigari, an 1899 record of two famous actors performing a scene from a well-known kabuki play. Early films were influenced by traditional theater – for example, kabuki, at the dawn of the twentieth century theaters in Japan hired benshi, storytellers who sat next to the screen and narrated silent movies. They were descendants of kabuki jōruri, kōdan storytellers, theater barkers, Benshi could be accompanied by music like silent films from cinema of the West. With the advent of sound in the early 1930s, the benshi gradually disappeared, in 1908, Shōzō Makino, considered the pioneering director of Japanese film, began his influential career with Honnōji gassen, produced for Yokota Shōkai. Shōzō recruited Matsunosuke Onoe, a kabuki actor, to star in his productions. Onoe became Japans first film star, appearing in over 1,000 films, mostly shorts, the pair pioneered the jidaigeki genre. Tokihiko Okada was a romantic lead of the same era. Among intellectuals, critiques of Japanese cinema grew in the 1910s, in what was later named the Pure Film Movement, writers in magazines such as Kinema Record called for a broader use of such cinematic techniques. Some of these critics, such as Norimasa Kaeriyama, went on to put their ideas into practice by directing such films as The Glow of Life, there were parallel efforts elsewhere in the film industry. In his 1917 film The Captains Daughter, Masao Inoue started using techniques new to the silent film era, such as the close-up, the Pure Film Movement was central in the development of the gendaigeki and scriptwriting. New studios established around 1920, such as Shochiku and Taikatsu, at Taikatsu, Thomas Kurihara directed films scripted by the novelist Junichiro Tanizaki, who was a strong advocate of film reform